


Honest Sentiment

by minkhollow



Category: Villains By Necessity
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-29
Updated: 2008-12-29
Packaged: 2017-10-02 03:58:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minkhollow/pseuds/minkhollow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fifteen years or so after the events of canon, some of the consequences of Mizzamir's mind-altering spells are still playing out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Honest Sentiment

**Author's Note:**

> Cata and the world as a whole belong to Eve Forward; I'm just borrowing to explore a concept that intrigues me in the endgame.

Cata had known there was someone else in the alley for a while; such things were only to be expected, in this part of town, and that part of her skills had recovered from the whitewash-induced atrophy several years previously. But she hadn't anticipated being put at knifepoint by her fellow skulker.

She dodged away, the change in position allowing her to get a better look at her would-be assailant - a girl, no more than twenty summers old, black-clad and scowling. The light from the mouth of the alley caught on her reddish-blonde curls, somewhat incongruous with her clothing and slightly familiar in their own right.

The girl turned after her again, and Cata, upon getting a better look at her face, almost laughed. "I hope you weren't expecting to kill me."

"What, you think a simple blood tie will be enough to stop me?"

"Not at all. But if you've trained half as well as I did - not to mention that you did so much more recently - you know that assassins only kill on assignment. You are far too upset to be on an assignment."

The girl paused, scowling even more. "And I've completely ruined my advantage for nothing, haven't I."

"Most likely, but it happens to the best of us. What are you calling yourself these days?"

"You _must_ remember what you named your own daughter."

"That remains beside the point, if you chose something unrelated." The work of those who returned to the Guilds after Mizzamir's spells wore off kept the tradition of choosing a new name after surviving the first year going, though exactly what the students drew from varied from city to city.

"Why choose an entirely new name when I could still be Rosa?"

Cata did laugh, at that. "Rosaline as well as rosamurton. Another poisons girl, I see."

"...That's all? I try to kill you and you comment on my specialty?"

"How much do you know about why I left?"

Rosa blinked, apparently startled by the question. "Cate said it was because you didn't love us anymore. I don't really remember it."

"I... see. Did you ever ask your father?"

"I didn't get to wondering until about ten years ago. By then, he was drunk all the time - the most he'd ever say was muttering about some kind of spell."

Cata sighed. "Roderick never seemed the type to be a heavy drinker - but those were different times. You need answers, girl, not revenge, and if you've got a while, I'm willing to give them."

Rosa nodded, and Cata led the way out of the alley. Neither of them said anything until they were further down the main street.

"You'll have heard something about the Victory, over the years."

Rosa nodded. "That, and Robin the Bard's first piece, about the Reversal."

"But that came much later. This story starts with one of the Heroes feeling the need to hang around and see an end to _all_ darkness. Making the choice for others, if he saw fit. He caught up with me several years before the Reversal, as you call it." Cata suspected Sam would be equally amused and embarrassed to know he'd been involved in something that acquired a capital letter. If only he were on hand at the moment to tell...

"But - but that's not a choice you can _make_ for someone else. It's in the song."

"That song didn't exist until after the fact. Anyway, I would have _loved_ to see you tell that to Mizzamir. He'd have smiled, told you his way was the best way for everyone, and put the spell on you anyway. I'm amazed Sam survived long enough to kill him, really."

Rosa shivered, despite the warmness of the evening air. "And he called himself good?"

"He called himself among the _best_. I don't think he realized what damage he would do when his spells died, partly because he never intended them to end."

"What damage do you mean?"

Cata just looked at her daughter for a moment. "You're of my stock, girl, and you've survived a Guild - you can't possibly be so dense as to miss it. Do a bit of math. How long ago was this Reversal?"

"Let's see, I would have been..." She paused, then looked up. "Two or three summers old. Barely old enough to realize you'd left."

"Precisely. I know I was married to your father, I know I bore children - but beyond that, I have no attachment to any of you. The woman who loved you should never have been brought into existence. I would have done no one any service by staying, least of all myself."

"Terribly selfish of you, wasn't it? Running off and abandoning us all?"

"Well, I don't know. Isn't it terribly selfish of you to try to come after me?"

Rosa stopped in her tracks.

"Selfishness is part of the darker side of life," Cata continued. "Part of why Mizzamir never saw his own. He thought he was acting for the good of the community, when--"

"When he nearly destroyed it."

They walked on in silence for a while longer, before Rosa broke it. "The answers help, but - I hope you don't expect them to solve everything."

"I wouldn't. I half expected one of you to track me down like this sooner or later, in fact; fire in the blood's hard to ignore. I'd prefer you not try to take out an assignment against me, but if that should happen at some point, there's not much I can do about it."

"That's all? I threaten your life, and that's _all_?"

Cata laughed. "You haven't been out of school long, have you? You'll get used to recovering from the shock soon enough. Besides, the action came from an honest feeling, and I can't fault you that. Seven years' false polity was more than enough for one lifetime."


End file.
